MOU - NRCS AND CRCD

THIS AGREEMENT is between the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Coarsegold Resource Conservation District (CRCD), collectively referred to as the parties, to define clearly the roles and responsibilities of the parties.

NRCS is authorized to cooperate and furnish assistance to the parties in the conservation of natural resources as referenced in the Soil Conservation and Domestic allotment Act, 16 U.S.C. 590. The Department of Agriculture Reorganization Act of 1994, Public Law 103-354; and the Secretary’s Memorandum No. 1010-1, Reorganization of the Department of Agriculture, dated October 20, 1994.

The California authority is defined in California Public Resources Code, Division 9 and Public Resources Code, Section 614.

For the purposes of this Operational Agreement, boundaries referred to herein will be those of the District as determined by the California State Public Resources Code, Division 9.

The purpose of this Operational Agreement is to supplement the Mutual Agreement between the United States Department of Agriculture and the Coarsegold Resource Conservation District and the Cooperative Working Agreement between the Natural Resources Conservation Service State Conservationist and the Coarsegold Resource Conservation District. These agreements document those areas of common interest of the state, federal and local partnership in natural resources conservation. The local Operational Agreement is meant to further define local priorities and working relationships.

The customers of the parties to this agreement are individual landowners/land users, federal and state land management agencies, other individuals, groups, and units of government. The parties mutually agree to provide leadership in resource conservation. To accomplish this, we share a commitment to listen, anticipate and respond to our customers’ needs; anticipate, identify, and address issues; maintain and improve our grass-roots delivery system; build new alliances to expand our partnership; foster economically viable environmental policies; improve the quality of life for future generations; and conserve and enhance our natural resources.

The parties pledge to work together by advancing and practicing teamwork; including input in the decision making process; communication, coordinating, and cooperating; sharing training opportunities; promoting mutual respect, improve our efficiency and effectiveness by putting quality first; empowering people to make decisions; demonstrating professionalism and dedication and striving for continuous improvement.

Each party is responsible for the hiring, management, supervision, development, and evaluation of its own personnel, including creating an environment that supports a diverse workforce.

TRAINING

The parties will provide appropriate leadership in administrative and technical training as determined by program needs. Training also includes the orientation of all employees and officials in organizational philosophies, programs, authorities, roles and responsibilities of the parties.

The parties are encouraged to offer training opportunities to each other.

EMPLOYMENT

The parties will work together to coordinate individual staffing plans to include necessary disciplines for program delivery.

Employee evaluations will be done independently by the employing organization, but others may provide input.

The parties will work together to determine the amount of technical and administrative assistance needed and available for program delivery at each level. Such assistance may include contracts, agreements, procurement, personnel, engineering, and/or other assistance provided by the parties.

NATURAL RESOURCE PLANS

The parties will coordinate with public and private resource groups, other resource agencies, and interested parties to share information and resources in developing comprehensive natural resource plans. All data collected for individual plans shall be confidential.

RESOURCE INVENTORIES

The parties agree to identify, define, and coordinate the collection and use of resource inventory data.

The parties will cooperate in monitoring and validating the resource inventory data to assure that the data meets the needs of resource planning and evaluation processes.

INFORMATION/DATA SHARING

The parties will designate who has responsibility for collection and maintenance of particular resource information. Any information gathered from private landowners is to remain confidential.

BOUNDARIES

The parties will agree on common boundaries for program delivery.

MARKETING

The parties will coordinate their efforts in the communication of program information to their customers.

The parties will adopt the NRCS Field Office Technical Guide (FOTG) and other science-based technical standards, as appropriate.

JOB APPROVAL

Each party will assign conservation practice (job approval) authority to its personnel based on employee knowledge, skill and ability levels and within applicable laws and guidelines as prescribed by the State of California. RPF’s and CRM’s are authorized as planners under these laws and guidelines.

MAINTENANCE OF STANDARDS

The parties will develop a process to establish and maintain consistent standards.

EQUIPMENT

The parties will agree to share equipment for common use within established guidelines and procedures.

RECORDS MANAGEMENT

The parties will define legal requirements and limitations for access and use of relevant records. All records are considered confidential.

The parties will agree on the maintenance, update, and disposition of relevant records.

The parties will work together to maximize available resources and actively seek funding to accomplish natural resource priorities and programs.

The parties recognize that non-federal signatories may establish procedures to collect fees, where permissible, for delivery of such services that are not provided through federal financial or technical assistance.

The parties will each assume responsibility for their officials or employees acting within the scope of their employment to the extent provided by federal, tribal, and state laws.

The parties will design and implement an outcome based-evaluation system to determine if resource and customer needs are being met.

Authority to carry out specific projects or activities, such as transfer of funds, acquisition of services and property, will be established under separate agreement.

The parties and other programs or activities conducted under this agreement will be in compliance with the nondiscrimination provisions contained in Titles VI and VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987 (Public Law 100-259); and other nondiscrimination statues; names, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, the Age Discrimination Act of 1975, and American’s with Disabilities Act of 1990. They will also be in accordance with regulations of the Secretary of Agriculture (7 CFR-15, Subparts A & B), which provide that no person in the United States shall on the grounds of race, color, national origin, gender, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, and marital or family status, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be otherwise subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance from the U.S. Department of Agriculture or any agency thereof.

This agreement can be modified or terminated at any time by mutual consent of all parties or can be terminated by any part’s giving 60 days written notice to the other parties.

This Operational Agreement should be revisited and updated as needed.

By: (signed) T. W. Wheeler

President

Date: February 22, 2001

By: (signed) Don Nielsen

District Conservationist

Date: February 22, 2001